Social media undeniably offers unparalleled potential for business owners. Networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTUBE are swarming with potential new customers interested in the products or services you offer. LinkedIn particularly offers business professionals a way to create new relationships using new connections and engagement strategies with other companies. The business focused network yields 277% more effectiveness over Twitter & Facebook in terms of lead generation. Forgetting about the old “salesy” approach you may have been accustomed to in traditional networking strategies will most likely serve as one of your greatest assets. Be social, informative, focused, and ensure shareable content with plenty of good links is flowing in your status updates.
One of the most common mistakes made on LinkedIn today include extreme content automation. While all automated content may not be considered promotional spam, rest assured that it puts a damp on building new bridges. The human factor serves of critical importance especially on LinkedIn. It helps establish a personal approach that most business professionals will appreciate. In today’s amped up social world it’s imperative you differentiate LinkedIn from others if serious about professional business networking.
5 Tips for a Stealthy LinkedIn Profile
1. Customized profile URL
Accessibility to your LinkedIn profile will ensure improved connectivity with potential new connections. By default the platform generates random variables as part of the url that’s extremely difficult to remember. Get a customized LinkedIn profile url and give others the ability to revisit or share more often.
2. Use a profile badge
Promoting your LinkedIn presence should be an intricate part of a digital marketing plan. Ideal for a website or blog using an embedding technique offers visual representation and provides visitors with the opportunity of further interactions. These badges are available both for personal and company profiles. Get your LinkedIn profile badge.
3. Gain more traffic with SEO
While LinkedIn’s SEO feature isn’t quite intuitive most people tend to overlook its potential. The built-in search options enables users such as yourself with ability to search by industry, city, state, zip code, or even company. For increased visibility and reach in LinkedIn search it’s imperative to optimize your profile with seeded keyword terms pertaining to a specific industry. Addition of website links or blog, social media profiles such as Twitter handles, Facebook pages, and Google+ profiles enables increased cross-channel engagement with your target audience. Those brands with company profile pages should encourage their employees to participate on their own personal profiles and essentially contributing towards increased brand visibility.
4. Join informational groups or start one of your own
The groups feature represents untapped potential for starting new conversations, keeping tabs on the industry, or perhaps even seeking new project opportunities. In just about every single group on LinkedIn there’s at least one unmet project opportunity. On the flipside building your own group can help establish credibility and knowledge essentially positioning you as an authoritative figure inside a particular industry. Feel free to check out the digital marketing St. Louis LinkedIn group if it peaks your interest.
5. Recommendations and Endorsements matter
Recommendations can be looked upon as testimonials in a way. Perhaps one from a former employer validating your capabilities in a specific area. Maybe a recommendation from a former customer that you’ve done previous work for. LinkedIn recommendations can be difficult to acquire. It’s important that your profile is fully populated and optimized to ensure qualified recommendations. If comparing apples-to-apples think of recommendations as testimonials. The more you have, the merrier.
Endorsements are a fairly new feature available to individual LinkedIn profile users. It enables other connections with ability to endorse you for a specific Skill. These endorsements can be found under the Skills & Expertise section of your profile. As a logged in user you’ll be able to monitor the amount of endorsements you’ve received from connections. It’s important to outline your most valuable skills & expertise within your own industry therefore keep an eye out for freshness of this particular area.